Thursday, February 19, 2009

Creativity

I was a creative kid. Very creative. Always working on this or that art project. Then I went to art school and subsequently became a graphic designer. And for some reason, the creativity changed. I don't know if it was age or the fact that I was now being paid to be "creative" on someone else's terms, but I stopped doing art around that time.

Years passed and I dabbled in this and that, but the passion for it was never the same. And then I had a child. I was so excited for her to begin "doing art". She, however, had different ideas. Of course, knowing nothing about children I was off by a couple years in terms of ability (she didn't yet know not to eat the crayons, for example).

Now that she's 3-and-a-half, I am floored by the way creativity is ever-present. It doesn't have to be about art — in fact it usually isn't. The other day we were playing "school" and it was lunchtime. Instead of going into the kitchen and collecting things one could actually eat, Anna came up with the most beautiful, interesting collections of objects for our "lunch".

She and her friends play this way all the time, making something where there's nothing — creating languages and universes where none exist. There is so much creativity and beauty, and not a small amount of hilarity in their efforts.

She is my role model. The goal is to unlearn, to see a world of opportunity in the nothingness, to play again.